Press-release of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Kingdom of the Netherlands regarding the situation in the frontline and killing and wounding of civil population as a result of attacks of Armenian armed forces

Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Kingdom of the Netherlands expresses its deep condolences to the family of the victims Sahiba Guliyeva and her 2 years old granddaughter Zahra Guliyeva who were deliberately targeted and brutally killed in Alkhanli village of Fizuli region of Azerbaijan by armed forces of Armenia on July 4, 2017.

Armenia has been conducting systematic, deliberate and targeted attacks on civilian population encompassing inter alia women, children and elderly residing in the densely populated areas adjacent to the frontline. In fact, killing of children in the frontline has been long-standing practice of Armenian armed forces. They had killed in March 2011 10-year old Fariz Badalov, in July 2011, 12-year old Aygun Shahmaliyeva, in 2016 April 16-year old Turana Hasanova.

Armenia is responsible for the genocide of Khojali, where 613 people were murdered in one night on February 26, 1992. Armenia also bears responsibility for more than 1 million refugees and internally displaced people who had to flee their homeland as a result of the conflict. Armenia’s direct and deliberate attacks against the Azerbaijani civilian population and civilian objects, constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian and human rights law, in particular the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I thereto, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Azerbaijan once more brings to the attention of the international community that the primary reason of the tension and incidents in the frontline and major impediment to the resolution of the conflict is the unlawful presence of the armed forces of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

We call the international community not to turn blind eye to Armenian brutality and not to stand quiet when civil population are killed.